2013 Canadian Grand Prix

Which F1 driver was the best performer during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend?

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend.

Canadian Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – A tidy lap early on in Q3 secured his third pole position of the season. Made good his escape in the opening laps of the race but it looked a bit hairy at times as he dealt the turn four wall a glancing blow and went straight on at turn one later in the race. Brought the car home for his first win in Canada and boosted his points lead.

Mark Webber – Was in the hunt for a podium until Van der Garde turned in on him while he was trying to put the Caterham a lap down. The front wing damage and time lost left him vulnerable to Alonso, yet he was still able to set the fastest lap.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – Sixth on the grid was his worst qualifying performance at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve since his Minardi days. He picked off Bottas on the first lap and made further gains in the race, passing Webber and Hamilton thanks partly to their delays in traffic but also aided by the Ferrari’s excellent straight-line speed. Its one-lap pace remains a weakness however, one he says the team “absolutely must improve on”.

Felipe Massa – Suffered his third major crash in two weeks during qualifying which left him 16th on the grid. But made several passes in the opening laps which brought him up into the points-paying positions. Overtook Raikkonen on the penultimate lap but still finished behind Di Resta who he started the race ahead of.

McLaren

Jenson Button – Missed out on doing a high-fuel run in second practice due to a gearbox problem. Starting 14th he ran a long first stint, patiently waiting for the graining to subside on his super-soft tyres. But he wasn’t able to gain enough ground to make his subsequent stint on medium tyres pay off.

Sergio Perez – Finished ahead of Button but dropped too far back from Massa in his final stint to take advantage of Sutil’s drive-through penalty and claim a point.

Lotus

Kimi Raikkonen – His eagerness to gain places at the pit exit during qualifying got the better of him. But the two-place grid penalty he incurred only ended up costing him one spot. Having endured a luckless race with brake problems, high fuel consumption and a slow pit stop he then lost eighth place to Massa on the penultimate lap.

Romain Grosjean – His ten-place grid penalty from Monaco had little effect as he only qualified 19th after backing off for a yellow flag in Q1. He started on medium tyres and rose as high as eighth at one stage. But he wasn’t able to make his tyres last long enough to complete the race with a single stop, and his second visit to the pits left him well out of the points.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Rosberg’s run of pole positions came to an end as his radio failed during qualiying, robbing him of vital contact with the pit wall in a session where conditions were constantly changing. From fourth on the grid he slipped back to fifth in the race, visibly struggling with his tyres and the only finisher to make three pit stops.

Lewis Hamilton – Despite still being unhappy with his car’s braking performance Hamilton was in his usual excellent form at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He claimed another front row start and looked after his tyres far better than his team mate. But he wasn’t able to keep Alonso from taking second, thanks in part to the antics of Sutil.

Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg – Sauber admitted making an error in preparing Hulkenberg’s car on Friday as a result of which he spent most of the two sessions complaining out bottoming. He fared well in qualifying thanks to wet conditions but the race was dry and the Sauber proved too harsh on its tyres once again. He was nowhere near the points when he went out in a collision with Van der Garde. Although the Caterham had spent a lap holding him up, Hulkenberg was partly to blame for their race-ending contact as he left Van der Garde too little room as he came by.

Esteban Gutierrez – Another driver who tried to make a one-stopper work but couldn’t. Gutierrez overdid it after he left the pit lane following his second stop and crashed out.

Force India

Paul di Resta – Fastest in the wet first practice session, then lost time with an electrical problem in the second. For the second weekend in a row he was eliminated in a wet Q1, this time after being delayed by a gearbox problem. Amends were made on Sunday when a well-judged one-stop strategy lifted him ten places to seventh. Still he must wonder what might have been.

Adrian Sutil – The same could be said of his team mate, who qualified well but slipped backwards in the race, beginning when he spun while trying to pass Bottas. Nudged by Maldonado at the hairpin, he carried rear wing damage for the rest of the race. Later on he took too long letting Hamilton lap him – the Mercedes driver shouting for “blue flags” on the radio – and was given a drive-through penalty.

Williams

Pastor Maldonado – Collected a penalty for his contact with Sutil after which he was always going to struggle to rejoin the midfield battle without a Safety Car appearance.

Valtteri Bottas – A special qualifying performance saw him take third on the grid in wet conditions despite not having driven the track before. He was always going to struggle to hold on to that position in dry conditions. Despite firm-but-fair defensive driving he was powerless to stop the bulk of the midfield overtaking him.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – There were two keys to Vergne’s best-ever race result of sixth: a great performance in the wet qualifying session, and his pass on Bottas which helped him gain ground over his pursuers. He then covered Di Resta’s pit stop late in the race to protect his position from the Force India.

Daniel Ricciardo – Joined his team mate in Q3 but picked up the same penalty as Raikkonen. He never got on top of his car’s balance in the race, struggling with oversteer and falling back to 15th.

Caterham

Charles Pic – Impressed in qualifying by beating Grosjean’s time in Q1. But on a two-stop strategy he fell behind the one-stopping Marussias. He was able to overtake Chilton but not Bianchi.

Giedo van der Garde – Made a great start, gaining four places, but drew more attention to himself by committing two errors while being lapped. He was entirely to blame for the incident with Webber and received a ten-second stop-go penalty as a result. Then came the collision with Hulkenberg for which the Sauber driver was at least partly to blame, but Van der Garde should have let him go much sooner.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – Rued missing most of first practice on a track he hadn’t driven on before after he went off at turn three: “I got caught out on a damp section of the track,” he said. However he out-qualified Chilton as usual and finished ahead of Pic thanks to his one-stop strategy.

Max Chilton – Had a good stint on the medium tyres, less so on the super-softs where he began to lose grip and was passed by Pic.

169 comments on Vote for your Canadian GP driver of the weekend

There were 4 drivers who stood out during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend:

1) Sebastian Vettel, who looked quick from Friday – in long runs, too – whose main job was to cleverly secure pole position with a clean lap in Q3 before the rain worsened. After then, his race was rather straightforward as the quickest opponents (Webber and Alonso) had not qualified as well as he.

2) Fernando Alonso, who didn’t manage to string a good lap together in Q3 and, also due to Ferrari’s usual struggle in intermediate conditions, found himself a lowly 6th on the grid. He then made up ground in the race with some gutsy moves, but he just started too far back to have a chance to fight for Sebastian. (It’s a shame that damp qualifying robbed us of what would have been a thrilling duel between Seb and Fernando).

3) Jean Eric Vergne, who once again excelled in wet conditions on Saturday and was impressively constant through the race and bringing home a season-best sixth.

4) Paul di Resta, who after another forgettable Q1 somehow managed to make his medium tyres last just short of 60 laps (still not quite sure how he managed to do that!) to make his 1-stop strategy work, hence climbing 10 places up the order.

I’ll have to go by Vergne, as he was the one who impressed me the most.

He was really outstanding. I gave him my DotW vote. I don’t really like Di Resta, and have often thought that he’s nothing special, but a few more races like this and Bahrain and I’ll be changing my opinion of him very quickly!

JEV for me as well the guy just delivered, got rid of Bottas early on and then executed his strategy to perfection without wall contacts (Vettel) or poor qualifying (Alonso) or just driving around (the Mercedes boys). A distant second was Massa for me he was very racy and entertaining and claimed 8 placed without anyone in front of him retire.

A textbook Alonso weekend from Alonso – qualifying poorly as usual and recovering well to get on the podium- and a textbook Vettel weekend from Vettel – brilliant in the wet on Saturday to take pole, untouchable on Sunday to take the win.

But Vettel always starts from front or 3rd and so he does not need to pass cars in the opening lap and usually is in clear air.In spain he had the 2 Mercs ahead, who were easy prey due to their tire problems.
And in canada Alonso lost lots of time behind Bottas and Webber too.

Vettel for me this week. He makes it so good, that makes it look that easy.
But the entertaining part of the race was the battle between Hamilton and Alonso. Bravo to both of them for keeping it such close and clean.

A difficult one to choose. Vettel had a great Q3, and handled the conditions perfectly. He dominated the race (aside from a few hairy moments).
Alonso was poor in qualifying, but a large amount of that can be laid at the car’s inability to perform in quali and in the greasy conditions. He was his usual fighting best in the race and deserved 2nd.

Jean Eric Vergne must be up there due to a fantastic quali and a superbly judged race. He was faultless, and hopefully a sign of things to come.

In the end I gave it to Paul Di Resta. He looked great in practice, and can’t be blamed for his gearbox malfunction. He had a fantastic race from 17th, and did spectacularly to nurse his tyres for so long. He needed a great result this weekend and responded to all the things that went wrong for him this weekend with a clever, mature drive.

Tough one really but in the end, I gave it to Alonso and here is why:
– topped the practice one time in mixed conditions
– The F138 was looking strong but failed in Q3
– Almost carried out the prediction he gave Eddie Jordan about winning the race.
– Was a joy to watch having great battles coming from behind
– Ended a mere 14.4 secs behind Vettel and I atribute that to being stuck behind Botas for the first lap.

Vettel had a good race but itÂ´s just not so impressive because itÂ´s what he always does…. clean air and off he goes.

Easy one really, I gave it to Vettel and here is why:
– Didn’t top any practice but topped qualifying in difficult conditions.
– Carried out his post-qualifying statement of confidence in RB9’s good pace, translating his pole into a commanding race win.
– Was a joy to watch leaving everyone in the dust like a boss.
– Ended 14.4 sec’s in front of second placed car.

Alonso had a good race but itÂ´s always the same. Sits in a car worthy of front row, doesn’t qualify well and then plays catch-up. Must be some samurai thing. ;-)

I should give this one on merit and that is to Vettel. Fast all weekend. However, special mentions do go out to Vergne and Di Resta. Funny how last year FI were suffering massive degradation issues at the same venue and here Di Resta pulled 53 laps on a single set making Pirelli’s look like Bridgestones. Now only if he could quit whining. Vergne drove a solid race. I would have voted him as DOTW if I honestly did not feel that part of the qualifying was a lottery.

Vettel hands down. Took pole when Mercedes really should have had it, decimated the field in the race. Crushing and clinical.

Vergne is second, for an excellent qualifying and race performance (best result for STR since Vettel), Alonso third for a good recovery drive in the race after a poor qualifying session. Hamilton and Di Resta did pretty well too, but are behind those three.

I voted for Vettel- this year it doesn’t seem easy to be so invisible during a race due to such dominance, and yet we barely saw him. Vergne would also be a worthy winner. Hamilton did well too, as did Alonso in the race only, where he was also aided by his rivals being held up. Bottas was impressive, but his car was so useless its hard to determine how well he drove (aside from the obviously impressive qualifying and defending in the race). Massa raced well, but his weekend was ruined by his own error.